Whitehouse ties RI jobs losses to foreign currency manipulation

U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse is urging the House to pass a bill cracking down on currency manipulation by China and other countries. His call comes after the Senate passed a similar bill.

Whitehouse says China's currency manipulation is directly related to thousands of job losses in Rhode Island in the last decade.

"12,000 good-paying manufacturing jobs is a big deal," Whitehouse says, "and it's very important to fight back against the Chinese, who are using a host of predatory techniques to undercut our economy and take away our jobs."

Whitehouse attributes that 12-thousand job figure to a study by the Economic Policy Institute, which bills itself as a nonpartisan think tank. The Washington, D.C. institute's study uses roughly the same figure, although it blames the job losses on trade deficits with China. Whitehouse concedes wages and other things influence trade deficits, but he calls currency manipulation an important factor in the situation.

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